Camillia Lanham

I saw her before the play even started, hanging out in the eaves, waiting to make her entrance. You know the one—flying in on the wings of an umbrella out of the sky to save the day for a family in need with a playful wink and a stern nod.  That’s part of the magic […]

Photography-focused trips out to the Oceano Dunes can become an obsession: Chasing the perfection of repeated ridges, rain-spattered granules, optical illusions caused by layers of shadow and sand. Visual artist Karl Kempton doesn’t know how many thousands of photographs he’s taken. But for the past five years, he’s visited the dunes for weekly walks with […]

A pandemic gorilla slathered in red hunches over next to the stairs that lead down to an art studio. Topped by a black felt sombrero, Darcy Badiali’s sculpture watches over the koi pond, art-filled walls, and potted plants that populate The Place on PCH. The slatted floor is still wet from being hosed off before […]

As Cal State Oceano’s head honcho, Dean DeVille, breaks into his very own rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man,” strutting and shaking his booty across his office on the Great American Melodrama’s stage, the audience bursts into laughter.  “Na, na, na, na, na, na,” he crooned from beneath his three-piece suit one Sunday […]

Peach fuzz.  That soft outer layer surrounding peach skin makes a few appearances in Wendelin Van Draanen’s recently released novel, The Peach Rebellion. The Pismo Beach author’s first work of historical fiction is full of dribbling, sticky peaches, their juice, pits, and fuzz, as well as a summer of learning and lessons for three high […]